Snapping shut-out streak

12 September 2024

Kunlun Red Star 2 Lokomotiv Yaroslavl 6

Sometimes, the silver lining isn’t always easy to find. The best news from Red Star’s home game against Lokomotiv was that we snapped visiting goalie Daniil Isayev’s long shut-out streak. Unfortunately, by the time Colin Campbell scored on him, Loko already had five on the board and a heavy defeat was inevitable.

Mikhail Kravets made changes after our loss against Severstal. The big news was a long-awaited debut for Danny O’Regan. Our summer signing from MoDo joined the first line alongside Tomas Jurco and Rourke Chartier. Yury Pautov also got his first game since joining the club, while Jayden Halbgewachs and Austin Wong returned to the team. Brandon Yip, Tyler Wong, Hudson Elynuik and Martin Lefebvre were rested for this one.

Lokomotiv arrived in Mytishchi after shutting out the opposition in its previous two games. Our forwards got an idea about how tough it can be to score on Daniil Isayev early on. Inside three minutes we had two golden chances, but neither Ryan Merkley nor Luke Lockhart could beat the KHL’s hottest goalie of the moment.

Last season, the Railwaymen rode some solid goaltending all the way to the Gagarin Cup final before coming up short against Metallurg. To improve on that near miss, the Yaroslavl club hired some high-profile offense over the summer – and today Alexander Radulov potted his first for his new club. Radulov, one of the most exciting and volatile talents in Russian hockey over the past 15 or so years, beat Konstantin Volkov with a point shot in the 15^th minute.

That was the only goal of the first period, although our guys finished the frame under pressure after Tyler Graovac took the first penalty of the game in the 19^th minute.

Although our PK survived that one, the second period turned into a nightmare against a ruthless Lokomotiv power play. Radulov turned provider as Martin Gernat punished Colin Campbell’s trip in the 28^th minute. Then Ian McCoshen was called for two separate infringements on the same shift. Radulov needed just seven seconds to convert the first power play, prompting Kravets to bring Jeremy Smith into the game in place of Volkov.

However, McCoshen had a second penalty to serve and Smith’s introduction was made even more complicated 11 seconds later when Parker Foo joined our American defenseman in the box. A two-man advantage brought a second goal for Slovak defenseman Gernat as the game span out of our control.

Instead of trying to spark a fightback, it was all Kunlun could do to get to the intermission without further damage. Another penalty against us – and it’s worth noting that through 40 minutes, Lokomotiv received just one call – saw Wong sit for high sticking. That sparked an angry reaction from our guys and an unsporting conduct ruling had us back down to three skaters. This time, our PK did a huge job to halt Yaroslavl’s runaway train and keep the deficit down until the intermission.

It didn’t help much, though. Pavel Kraskovsky added a fifth a couple of minutes after the restart.

Finally, there was something to cheer on 44:04 when Campbell got us on the board at last. Despite being faced with three defensemen, Soupy got the puck back to Yury Pautov on the blue line. Pautov drilled it forward and Campbell was in place to bat the rebound past Isayev and halt his hot streak after 167:16.

Not that there was much time to enjoy it before Artur Kayumov added a sixth 30 seconds later. The game was long gone, but the closing stages brought a couple of moments to console our guys. Jake Chelios claimed his first goal of the season, getting himself up into Isayev’s face to redirect center Chartier’s backhand shot into the net.

Then Smitty submitted an early entry for the save of the season contest in the dying seconds, pulling off an acrobatic glove save to rob Shalunov of a free shot into an open net following a tricky feed from Kayumov. Small victories in the context of today’s game, but potentially of psychological significance looking ahead to our Far East tour.